1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to information appliances, and more particularly to user interfaces for finding, collecting and acting upon hierarchically structured information.
2. Background Description
Since the advent of the personal computer there have been many efforts to improve the user interface, to make it easier for human beings to find the information they need and do with it what they want in an efficient manner.
Initial command line approaches were replaced by graphical user interfaces (GUI's), as demonstrated at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) with the Xerox 8010 “Star” Information System in the 1970's and implemented by the Apple Macintosh and by Microsoft Windows operating system in the 1980's and by the Mosaic graphical web browser for the Internet in the 1990's. These efforts have included graphical tools such as tool bars, pull down menus, pointers, icons, windows and desktops. These efforts are mostly task-oriented interfaces for desktop environments.
Other efforts have been directed toward information visualization techniques for handling large volumes of hierarchically arranged data. For example, researchers at PARC have considered a three dimensional technique in “Cone Trees: Animated 3D Visualizations of Hierarchical Information” in Reaching Through Technology, CHI '91 Conference Proceedings, New Orleans, La., Apr. 27-May 2, 1991 (Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group in Computer-Human Interaction, 1991 ACM 0-89791-383-3/91/0004/0189), pp. 189-194. This approach includes methods for focusing on smaller parts of a complex structure.
The foregoing prior art techniques illustrate methods of expanding human capacity to “see” large amounts of information, and to peruse this information looking for patterns and particular pieces of information. But they do not integrate within their methodologies techniques for accomplishing practical results beyond information visualization and retrieval.
Furthermore, while much progress has been made, the interfaces remain much too complicated for most users, and as a result the potential for mass access to the power of the computer has not been realized. There remains a need for a simple interface that is intuitive for users who are not familiar with computers, and yet powerfully enables these users to find, collect and act upon vast quantities of information made available by computer.